“When a baby is born, our first response is love. When a dear one dies, the hand we hold is a gesture of love. Timeless love and awareness is who you are. Trust it.”– Jack Kornfield
It is more than a little challenging, this waiting for the pandemic in Haines. And I know that’s bad form to say, when many are IN it now, or just coming out of it after a very tough go ’round. My house is usually full this time of year, with grandchildren and children and friends and visitors. It’s so quiet now, and I don’t have to wipe up the bathroom everyday or vacuum the dog hair or wonder if we have enough coffee or eggs.
There’s plenty since there ain’t nobody here but us chickens.. but they are kind of fun to hang out with.
So what can we do? Be good to hens and dogs, and put fresh flowers on the table, too. Even if no one is coming over. Turn off the computer and “blow up the TV.” (Well, at least one day a week?)
My friend dropped off a copy of Lion’s Roar, a Buddhist magazine, and I opened it up this morning to a letter to readers from Jack Kornfield, while having coffee on my deck and feeling a little sorry for myself, as if the plague is personal. “Dear Friends,” he writes, “Epidemics, like earthquakes, tornadoes,and floods are part of the cycle of life on planet earth. How will we respond? With greed, hatred, fear, and ignorance? This only brings more suffering. Or with generosity, clarity, steadiness, and love?” The answer- and of course we know this– is love– and that, he writes, “this is the time for love.”
Then there’s the how, since burping the baby and visiting the nursing home are out.
One way, these Buddhists say, and Jesus would agree I bet, is to meet anger and fear with compassion. To show courtesy. If someone is standing to close, back up a little and don’t get mad about it. Another way is, that when you hear a siren, or see an ambulance, or a medevac plane, pray that all be well, or that at least God will be with them. All of them, all of us– The crews, the patients and the EMTs and doctors and nurses. Be grateful for all that love.
